As promised a psychological profile of bush. Kind of explains everything. And at the sametime makes everyone I know who read this wish they could move the clock ahead a couple years so we can get past this:


Bush and the Psychology of Incompetent Decisions
By John P. Briggs, MD, and J.P. Briggs II, PhD
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributors

Thursday 18 January 2007

President George W. Bush prides himself on "making tough decisions." But
many are sensing something seriously troubling, even psychologically
unbalanced, about the president as a decision-maker. They are right.

Because of a psychological dynamic swirling around deeply hidden feelings
of inadequacy, the president has been driven to make increasingly incompetent
and risky decisions. This dynamic makes the psychological stakes for him now
unimaginably high. The words "success" and "failure" have seized his rhetoric
like metaphors for his psyche's survival.

The president's swirling dynamic lies "hidden in plain sight" in his
personal history. From the time he was a boy until his religious awakening in
his early 40s, Bush had every reason to feel he was a failure. His continued,
almost obsessive, attempts through the years to emulate his father, obtain his
approval, and escape from his influence are extensively recorded.

His biography is peppered with remarks and behavior that allude to this
inner struggle. In an exuberant moment during his second campaign for Texas
governor, Bush told a reporter, "It's hard to believe, but ... I don't have
time to worry about being George Bush's son. Maybe it's a result of being
confident. I'm not sure how the psychoanalysts will analyze it, but I'm not
worried about it. I'm really not. I'm a free guy."

A psychoanalyst would note that he is revealing here that he has been
worrying about being his father's son quite a lot.

Resentment naturally contaminated Bush's efforts to prove himself to his
father and receive his father's approval. The contradictory mix showed up in
his compulsion to re-fight his father's war against Iraq, but this time
winning the duel some thought his father failed to win with Saddam. He could
at once emulate his father, show his contempt for him, and redeem him. But
beneath this son-father struggle lies a far more significant issue for Bush -
a question about his own competence, adequacy and autonomy as a human being.

We have seen this inner question surface repeatedly, and we have largely
conspired with him to deny it.

On September 11, 2001, we saw (and suppressed) the image of him sitting
stunned for seven minutes in a crowd of school children after learning that
the second plane had hit the Twin Towers, and then the lack of image of him
when he vanished from public view for the rest of the day. Instead, we bought
the cover-up image, three days after the attack, of the strong leader,
grabbing the bullhorn in New York City and issuing bellicose statements.
In 2004, we saw and denied the insecurity displayed when the president refused
to face the 9/11 Commission alone and needed Vice President Cheney to go with
him.
In 2003, we saw and suppressed the dark side of the "Mission Accomplished"
aircraft carrier landing, in which a man who had ducked out on his
generation's war and dribbled away his service in the Texas Air National Guard
dressed up like Top Gun and pretended that he was a combat pilot like his
father.
Asked by a reporter if he would accept responsibility for any mistakes, Bush
answered, "I hope I don't want to sound like I've made no mistakes. I'm
confident I have. I just haven't - you just put me under the spot here, and
maybe I'm not quick - as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with
one." What we heard, and yet didn't hear, was a confession of his feelings of
inadequacy and an arrogant denial those feelings all at once.
In early 2006, when his father moved behind the scenes to replace Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the son responded, "I'm the decider and I decide
what's best" - and when he clenched his fist at a question about his father's
influence, proclaiming, "I'm the Commander in Chief" - we glimpsed what was
going on.
To cover up and defend himself against his feelings of his inadequacy and
incompetence, Bush developed a number of psychological defenses. In his school
years he played the clown. (His ability to joke about his verbal slip-ups is
an endearing adult application of this defense to public life.) His heavy
drinking was a classic way to anesthetize feelings of inadequacy. Indeed,
drinking typically makes the alcoholic grandiose, which has led some
commentators to argue that Bush has the "dry drunk" syndrome, where the
individual has stopped drinking but retains the brittle psychology of the
alcoholic. Other defenses now play especially powerful roles to protect the
president against his internal feelings of insufficiency.